When meteorites formed, 4.5 Gyr ago, they contained radioactive such as 26Al (T1/2 = 0.64 Myr) and 60Fe (T1/2 = 2.6 Myr). The origin of these elements and their astrophysical relevance has long been elusive. I will try to show that they are the tracers, at the meteorite scale, of sequential star formation as observed today at the Galactic scale.
museum d’histoires naturelles